S2Thizzle

[QUOTE]Originally posted by axis_of_evil

axis_of_evil

Sold to College kid, for $100. It ran fine but had nylon webbing holding the hood closed since I was hit at 285K, plus it needed a water pump.

I'd welcome any firther info/opinions on the 'warming up your car' question.

Intrepid175

[QUOTE]Originally posted by axis_of_evil
Sold to College kid, for $100. It ran fine but had

GotRpm

It is silly to say that modern engines are damaged by lots of idling. This logic would mean that if we sat stopped in traffic for more than two minutes we are damaging our engines - a silly notion in the extreme. Modern computer-controlled engines do not run excessively rich at startup idle and they are not damaged by doing this; it is true that older, carbureted vehicles could have oil control problems due to a rich mixture washing oil off the cylinders. However, those old engines used strangler chokes which often did not turn off until the owner tapped the throttle. Thank goodness those days are long gone.

For the past twenty years I lived in Alaska where I parked all my cars outside in -20F weather and below; anytime the weather was below +20F I always idled the vehicles for 5 to 10 minutes before driving away, and none of them were compromised in the least...all were great performers for all the years I owned them. Im talking six different brand new vehicles here, no issues, no shortened engine life, not excessive oil consumption, no fouled spark plogs...the only downside was about 1-2 mpg less fuel economy in the winter. This is a very common practice in cold climates, and we don't have a rash of screwed-up engines in Alaska, Canada, the northern tier states or Scandanavia. Engine tolerences are set to be optimized at normal temperature, and it is a toss-up if the lessened warm-up time with heavy loading is more "damaging" than extended warm-up with no load...

All that said, in warm weather there is no reason to idle for more than a couple minutes. This original poste has an interesting observation, and while I have no idea if this makes sense ( don't know how the PCM reads in this car ) it seems harmless to try. But apparenlty patience is still not something the young have in abundance....

EvolutioN_Swe

My 2 cents.

When I was taking my Taxi drivers licence here in sweden. There

bkw

i kinda do this, but not on purpose. i'll take the cover off, start the car, drop the top, then use my california duster (no flames pls) and clean off whatever drops off from the cover (pollen, small twigs, leaves, etc). by the time im done and shes presentable, the car is well below 1500 and at 2 bars.

TrueDrezzer

Not only is it illegal to warm up the car here in Germany, I am under the impression that engine wear occurs mostly during startup and the warmup phase. Thus, reducing the amount of startups and reducing the time of warmups would reduce engine wear. Idling a car until it's warm takes much more time than simply driving it gently, so I choose the drive gentle method.

I do give the engine some time for the oil to circulate around and start heating up, so a 30 second idle is what I normally do.

Hey I still have a beater car that uses an electric carb. Owner's manual states to fully depress the throttle and release prior to cranking to activate the Cold Start feature. Just after starting you have to blip the throttle again to get the revs down to idle properly


///Robin

GotRpm

[QUOTE]I am under the impression that engine wear occurs mostly during startup and the warmup phase.

axis_of_evil

Thanks, gotrpm - that was the point I tried making earlier.

p0pe

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GotRpm
I've heard this too but cannot say it is anything more than an old wive's tale.